When the staff of the Ellen DeGeneres show in Los Angeles fanned out among the audience prior to a taping a few weeks ago, they chatted up new Gratiot County resident Melissa Karpel.

A native of Los Angeles, Karpel told them she was now living in Michigan and was to be married in the fall.

“They liked our energy,” she said.

Later on, the staff asked who in the audience lived on a farm.

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Karpel, 34, visiting back home and with her sister at the taping, was the only one to raise her hand. The staff, she said, was surprised.

“Really?” they asked.

She told them that she, like DeGeneres, is a vegan and intent on growing organic vegetables at the farm owned by her fiancé.

Her fiancé is local orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bradley Binsfeld and they met on a vegan cruise in the Caribbean.

Before the show ended, Karpel herself was surprised when they called out her name to come up on stage. She had just won a new John Deere riding lawn tractor.

“I ran down and gave her a hug,” she said. “I’d always looked up to her. It was a personal dream of mine. She seems very generous and kind. I just hoped I showed how grateful I was. I hoped she would appreciate that (the lawn tractor) would go to a vegan farm.”

Previously, the farm had grown corn and soybeans and for now, rye has been planted, as a kind of transition crop.

“You can’t go right to organic,” she said of the farm just outside of Alma.

An alumna of Cal State Northridge, Karpel was a stage manager for LA Opera and now works out of her home as a volunteer coordinator for the Fixit Foundation, an organization that promotes the spaying and neutering of animals.

Her passion for animals is in part, the reason for her choosing to become a vegetarian.

And, her appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show – the show ran a week ago -- was not her first time in front of a national audience.

Veganism also played a role there as well.

About six years ago, Karpel was one of the stars of a reality show called “30 Days.”

She and her vegan family were paired up with a hunter, who moved in with them. The objective, of course, was conflict.

But it turned out that the hunter “is a nice guy. We both learned a lot from each other.”

And they’ve remained friendly.

In fact, “I just spoke with him yesterday. He’d seen me on the show. He’d rescued a cat.”

Moving from L.A. to Alma is a leap few mid Michigan natives can imagine, but Karpel said she appreciated the quiet small area and called it beautiful.

Linda Gittleman may be reached at 989-463-6071, lgittleman@michigannewspapers.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lgittleman.